Burnt Offerings for July 1, 2014

Things have been quiet on the MOD front these last couple of weeks, so this week’s Burnt Offerings is taking a look at this week’s new releases as well as the titles that came back into print last week from Warner Archive. As ever, these stylish and clickable banners will whisk you away to the shopping portal of your choice where your buying power helps fuel our work here at The Bits. Our appreciation runs deep. [Read on here...]

NEW FROM THE WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION

Another Dawn (1937) – Errol Flynn stars in three of this week’s new releases, starting with this adventure/romance costarring Kay Francis. Francis is married to British army colonel Ian Hunter but falls deeply in love with Hunter’s second-in-command, Errol Flynn.

Escape Me Never (1947) – More romantic entanglements, this time in Vienna between Flynn, his composer brother (Gig Young), his brother’s fiancée (Eleanor Parker), and street urchin Ida Lupino. Trivia note: this was the final film score for legendary composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

The Warriors (1955) – Flynn is back in swashbuckler territory as Prince Edward battling against French rebels led by Peter Finch. Joanne Dru is the fair damsel in distress.

Magic Boy (1959) – This one is new to me. According to the folks at Warner Archive, this is the first Japanese animated film to be imported to the US. The titular magic boy, Sasuke, embarks on a quest to defeat the demon witch who terrorizes his homeland. As a longtime animation fan, I’m very interested in checking this out.

Marine Boy: The Complete Third Season (1967-68) – The underwater adventures of Marine Boy and Splasher come to a close in this three-disc collection of aquatic animation.

Daktari: The Complete Third Season (1967-68) – The penultimate season of the family adventure series arrives and is probably worth picking up for the season opener alone, which is titled “Judy And The Astro-Chimp”. Sold.

The Yearling (1946) – Gregory Peck stars in this adaptation of the beloved Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings young adult novel.

Crash (1996) – David Cronenberg’s NC-17 adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s “unfilmable” novel (one of several unfilmable novels filmed by Cronenberg) comes back into print on MOD and probably kills my dream of seeing this released on Blu-ray by Criterion. Thanks a lot.

Dangerous Beauty (1998) – Catherine McCormack stars in this period drama about a Venetian courtesan who becomes one of the most independent and outspoken women of the 16th century.

NEW FROM THE SONY PICTURES CHOICE COLLECTION

Alibi For Murder (1936) – B-movie mystery with William Gargan as a reporter with a hunch that a businessman’s suicide is actually murder, murder most foul.

The Stork Pays Off (1941) – A group of bumbling gangsters takes over a nursery. The kind with babies, not trees.

Canal Zone (1942) – Wartime adventure about pilots training for combat near the Panama Canal. Look for a young Lloyd Bridges as a recruit.

Drive A Crooked Road (1954) – Blake Edwards wrote the screenplay for this film noir starring Mickey Rooney as a mechanic who falls into the murky world of organized crime. This was previously released in the TCM box set Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics III, which is now very out of print and sells for big bucks on the secondary market.

Confessions Of A Pop Performer (1975) – The fairly intolerable Confessions series continues with Robin Askwith and Anthony Booth entering the British pop scene.

The Disappearance Of Vonnie (1994) – Ann Jillian stars in another one of the made-for-TV, based-on-a-true-story dramas that were her bread and butter throughout the 80s and 90s.

About Dr. Adam Jahnke

Dr. Adam Jahnke is a Senior Editor for The Digital Bits who joined in 2000. His regular columns include Burnt Offerings: MOD DVD, The Bottom Shelf and Jahnke's Electric Theater (which includes the popular JET's Most Wanted and the annual month-long Hell Plaza…